Golpalott's Third Law

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 151498

DA Jones wrote:
<snip> All this law means is that if you take two separate potions
with there separate anti-dotes and blend or mix them together then the
new antidote is both of the previous antidotes plus something else as
a result of the effect of mixing them together. <snip>
> Only a chemist or pharmacist could tell you if there is an
equivalent law in real life, but I would suspect so. I think this is
also a concept for homeopathic medicine where they take small
minuscule amounts of ingredients and mix them together.
<snip>

Carol responds:
I agree with this definition. However, I thought that JKR was simply
spoofing the aphorism attributed to Euclid, "a whole is greater than
the sum of its parts." Teen!Snape and Hermione, being logically
oriented, would have no trouble with it, but Harry, if he attempted to
understand it at all, would see it as counterintuitive, much as
teen!JKR, whom we know to have problems with "maths," would have found
Euclid's maxim puzzling and paradoxical.

Like the plays on words in the titles and authors of the imaginary
books in the series, or the "Griffin door" knocker, it's simply fun,
IMO, and nothing more. Except, of course, that the assignment enables
Harry, who has no clue what the Law means, to be rewarded for the
*HBP's* cheek ("Just stuff a bezoar down their throats") at the
expense of Hermione, who understands and applies Golpalott's Law with
no reward. (Makes me dislike Slughorn rather intensely, but that's
beside the point.)

Carol, not entirely sure what Euclid meant or whether he's been
translated correctly but pretty sure that *Golpalott's* Law is simpler
than it appears to Harry